Friday, 8 January 2016

My Gita by Devdutt Pattanaik (Book Review-3.75*/5) !!!

I had read a lot about Devdutt Pattanaik but finally read his first work which is also his latest release- "My Gita", published by Rupa Publication. First of all, I must say that the cover page is very excellent which makes you curious to know what exactly is written in the book and you will not want to keep it aside until you are done with all the 18 chapters. I took almost 3 weeks to complete this book as I wanted to remember most of the events and understanding of the Hindu mythology. I must say that the reading experience has been great as the way Devdutt has made the concept easier for the novice readers isn't an easy task. The effort gone into research, translation and conversion can be easily deciphered.

The book starts with the introduction of Gita where the author tells about the numbers of Gita that are available around us and which one is the most popular among them. He also tells us about the connection between each one of them and during which era some of them originated to let us know their reliability. Also, the arrangement of chapters in Gita is also discussed along with what motive it serves. And then Devdutt continues telling us how he has written his version of Gita and what exactly is his purpose to write the same. The good thing about Devdutt's Gita is that he didn't focus only on Hinduism but also discussed other cultures too. He also tried explaining why cultures differ with each other.

In the book, Devdutt have not only given references of Mahabharat but also Ramayana and the period between both the major events. He have also made us understand how Krishna, Hanuman etc are related with both the epics. The verses and their explanation with diagrammatic representations make the experience of reading interesting, joyous and exploring. Devdutt have managed to not compare two cultures and prove which one of them is better but leaves it upon reader to find his own ideology among the two and go with any one of them. Talking about the drawbacks, I would say that the book is not even that good the way it is been over-rated on social media. It is just a fine attempt and not something I would recommend people every time someone asks me a good book on Hinduism. I would give this book 3.75* out of 5.